NJPW G1 Climax Results
August 2, 2017 (Night 12)
Citizen Gymnasium, Fukuoka, Japan
UNDERCARD MATCHES
– Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino def. Katsuya Kitamura & Ren Narita
– Kota Ibushi & Tiger Mask IV def. Yuji Nagata & Hirai Kawato
– Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi def. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
– Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & Desperado def. Tetsuya Naito, Bushi & Hiromu Takahashi
– Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Thunder Liger def. Togi Makabe & David Finlay
B BLOCK TOURNAMENT MATCHES
Sanada (6) def. Juice Robinson (2)
Juice came in strong and the two had a good back and forth exchange, but the leg injury he’s been selling since the start couldn’t hold up and give Sanada an easy target to go after. Juice rallied back several times and had the crowd firmly behind him, hitting all his major offense including the cannonball, a powerbomb and his awesome spinebuster that could give Arn Anderson a run for his money. He kept fighting out of the Skull End but on the third attempt Sanada got it sunk it deep and forced him to tap out.
Toru Yano (2) def. Michael Elgin (4)
Yano tried a bit of his usual comedy shtick at the start but was quickly overtaken by Elgin who completely demolished him. Yano did the old Eddie Guerrero spot pretending that Big Mike had kicked him in the groin, and for whatever reason the referee believed him and threw out the match. Elgin was understandably pissed after the “match”, as was everyone watching quite possibly the stupidest decision ever made in a G1 tournament.
Minoru Suzuki (6) def. Satoshi Kojima (0)
For those that don’t know there’s a ton of personal history between these two. Before there was Suzuki-Gun there was Kojima-Gun, including founding members Taichi and Taka Michinoku, before everyone turned on him and formed the gang of thugs you know and hate today. And wouldn’t you know it, Michinoku came out Minoru to start the match, as did Desperado. They did their usual interference until Tenzan came in and took care of them, but the referee threw him out. What a night for terrible referee decisions. Kojima rallied back and a few times but his offense was largely ineffective apart from a big brainbuster near the end. More Suzuki-Gun interference but Tenzan ran back out to take them down with Mongolian chops. Minoru put Kojima in the sleeper and hit a Gotch-style piledriver for the win.
Kazuchika Okada (10) def. Tama Tonga (4)
Tama jumped the champion before the match and did the same thing from the night before, where he stole Okada’s jacket and gold chains, parading around dressed like the Rainmaker. They had a good back and forth match but not quite up to most of Okada’s matches so far in the G1. Tama had a counter for literally everything the champion threw at him including several Rainmaker attempts, the signature dropkicks and all his other big spots. Finally Okada hit a German suplex and got the Rainmaker he’d been looking for to pick up yet another win.
Kenny Omega (8) def. EVIL (8)
This was the battle to further separate the pack between two men tied for second place, and although he didn’t win EVIL really took his game to a completely different level. He’s been great this whole tournament, and really for quite some time going back to last year’s G1, but this was something even more. They went back and forth killing each other with every big move in their arsenals and even some brutal table spots in what is becoming Kenny’s classic main event style big match. EVIL connected with a chair shot as he was coming off the barricade earlier on. Kenny responded by putting him through a table. That wasn’t going to put either guy away and instead they built towards a second table spot, with EVIL hitting the STO to send them both through it. The Los Ingobernables was busted open over the eye and looked to be in really bad shape. Near the end he was basically out on his feet, possibly concussed after a V-Trigger and reverse rana. Omega quickly got him up in the One Winged Angel and took the win.
UPDATED B BLOCK STANDINGS:
Kazuchika Okada – 12
Kenny Omega – 10
EVIL – 8
Minoru Suzuki – 8
Sanada – 8
———————-
Tama Tonga – 4
Toru Yano – 4
Michael Elgin – 4
Juice Robinson – 2
Satoshi Kojima – 0
KILLAM’S POST SHOW RECAP:
After the A Block put on one of the best shows of the entire tournament on Tuesday this was something of a disappointment overall. The one truly stellar effort was the main event, on par with some of the best big matches you’ve heard people talking about so far. The Juice/Sanada and Suzuki/Kojima matches were good, but not nearly as good as the blow away bouts from Tuesday and honestly all of them have had much better performances in recent weeks.
The pure idiocy surrounding the finish of Toru Yano vs. Michael Elgin really put a black eye on the entire night, sapping the momentum of many watching and discussing the show live. A disqualification in New Japan is extremely rare, and even more so when it comes to the G1. A count-out is also very rare, but when the executed that with Tanahashi and Fale earlier in the tournament, it made sense. Here, all they really accomplished was making their referees look totally incompetent. Are you trying to tell me that none of them have ever seen a Toru Yano match? It just didn’t make any sense. We’ve seen this exact same spot happen literally dozens of times, and up until THIS ONE TIME if the referee didn’t explicitly see it happen with his own eyes, he wouldn’t make the call. Period. So why now?
If it were opening night and you had a whole tournament still to work I could see pulling this off and it not being a big deal, but when you’re in the home stretch THIS is how you choose to eliminate one of your most popular foreign stars…? Unless this turns into a monster heel run by an understandably pissed off Big Mike, it was simply a bad call. It just goes to show you even the company known for having the most consistent, incredible booking across the whole wrestling world can do dumb things every once in awhile.
…Deep breaths…
So we have six shows remaining until the finals, and two totally different stories being told between the two blocks. With six points left on the board the A Block is still a neck-and-neck battle between eight different competitors, and a ninth still holding on by the skin of his teeth. It’s anybody’s game, but we should have that narrowed down to 4-5 people by the end of Friday’s show.
The B Block however has been absolutely rampaged by Okada’s impressive 12-point undefeated streak. He has already mathematically eliminated half the field. One more win closes the door on EVIL and Sanada’s chances. Suzuki needs a combination of miracles to stay alive, but you can’t completely rule him out at this point. It seems almost impossible that after remaining undefeated this far, after the truly iconic year he’s had, that an upset would come from anyone but Kenny Omega during the B Block Finals. Where they go from here is really a no-loss situation for New Japan, but we’ll go into that in more depth as we get closer to the end.
